Smoking, plasma antioxidants and essential fatty acids before and after nutratherapy

To study the effect of smoking on plasma antioxidants with and without antioxidant vitamin nutratherapy.

Chronic smokers (n = 10, 16 +/- 4 cigarettes a day) and nonsmokers (n = 17) of both sexes were recruited from patients with arthritis-like symptoms. After baseline studies of plasma antioxidant vitamins Q (ubiquinone) and E (alpha-tocopherol) and essential fatty acids (EFA, vitamin F), three months' nutratherapy with vitamins Q (90 mg) and E (350 mg) was administered and plasma reanalyzed.

No sex differences were seen in smoking habits or plasma nutrients. Smokers had normal Q (0.71 +/- 0.07 mg/L) but depressed E (9.4 +/- 0.6 mg/L, P < 0.01). EFA were the same in both groups. Nutratherapy increased Q by about 90% in both groups and E by 47% in smokers and 101% in nonsmokers (P < 0.01). In nonsmokers, nutratherapy protected omega-3 fatty acids (vitamin F1)-plasma docosahexaenoic acid increased by 39%. The vitamin F index (omega-6:omega-3, ratio) remained unchanged in the smokers but decreased in the nonsmokers and became related to the individual plasma vitamin Q but not to vitamin E.

There was no difference between smokers and nonsmokers before nutratherapy. Nonsmokers may have suffered from passive smoking. After nutratherapy the quantitatively most important antioxidant, ie, vitamin E, increased more in nonsmokers than in smokers. This resulted in less vitamin F1 peroxidation. Nutratherapy cannot overcome disadvantages associated with smoking. Nonsmokers might achieve an antioxidant protection with nutratherapy, which could mean a possible reduced risk of developing cardiovascular disease.